Death of Franco – Armenian artist Charles Aznavour after a long and beautiful bohemian life: Photos, Videos

The legendary Franco-Armenian artist died at the age of 94. With songs such as Take Me, See Me Already or La Bohème, the eternal Charles Aznavour has gone through times, generations and borders.

“Singer of the most important variety of the twentieth century”. This is the title awarded in 1988 to Charles Aznavour by the American channel CNN and the Times. More than 1200 songs in seven different languages, shows in 94 countries and more than 100 million records sold worldwide. But also more than 60 participations in feature films. Very discreet about his private life, the singer was married three times and had six children, three of them with his last wife Ulla with whom he had been married for more than 50 years.

Icon of the French song, Charles Aznavour was a world star, to the point of having his star on the “Walk of Fame” in Hollywood in 2017. Seventy years of career at the top of the bill for this legend of the song French. He died in the night from Sunday to Monday, at the age of 94 at his home in the Alpilles (south of France), announced Tuesday his press attachés. He was returning from a tour in Japan, having been forced to cancel concerts this summer due to a broken arm after a fall.

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His early years begin as a novel. His parents, Misha and Knar Aznavourian, come from Salonika, Greece. His father is the son of a former cook of Tsar Nicholas II, his mother belongs to a family of Armenian traders from Turkey who had fled the genocide of 1915. Charles Aznavour, at the time Varenagh Aznavourian, was born in France on 22 May 1924. His parents wait in Paris for a visa for the United States. Finally, France will be their home ground. His father has a career as a restaurant owner and a busy coffee boss, he prefers to sing.

Encouraged also by his mother, actress, the young man plays the violin in the streets, at the age of 9 at the School of the show and gives himself as stage name “Aznavour”. Soon, the song becomes obvious. A certain Charles Trenet becomes his idol. At the age of 17, at the height of the war, he met a young jazz composer, Pierre Roche. The duo “Roche and Aznavour” begins running cabarets. This collaboration will be born including J’aime Paris in May.

The “little con genius” of Piaf

Edith Piaf came to congratulate Charles Aznavour after his show at the Alhambra in Paris on October 9, 1958.
1945, a slow period for the two artists, despite a recording contract signed with Jacques Canetti at Polydor. The year after, the meeting with Edith Piaf raises them. She invites them to follow her during a two-year tour of France and the United States. The swing song of the duo is not really necessary in France, but is successful in Canada … And Pierre Roche eventually get married. Aznavour’s solo career begins … with difficulty.

For eight years, the artist works in the shadow of the singer. “The little con genius” becomes the jack of all trades, at the height of his career. He drives the car, answers the phone, takes care of lighting and sound during the tours … From time to time, he presents a song he has written, without much success. Piaf repeats to him that he will never pierce as a singer.

But Aznavour perseveres, clings and writes several songs for Gilbert Bécaud, Juliette Gréco, Patachou … Piaf herself makes a success with Jezebel.

In 1955, his dimples and his deep look make their first appearance on television. Hands in his pockets, casual, almost casual, Charles Aznavour sings The Palace of our chimeras: 1960 and the birth of the French and international star Aznavour is on the road to success: criticism may not believe in him, the public begins to attach. On my life, Because, His youth, In the hollow of my shoulder are his first successes.

An early career that could have ended tragically. In the summer of 1955, the singer is the victim of a violent car accident on the road to Saint-Tropez. Hospital, convalescence: several months away from the job, he must rebuild everything. The following year, Charles Aznavour made his first Olympia. But the critics are always virulent on the voice and the physical of the singer. Words that hurt him deeply and yet, the proposals for contracts are linked.

“Others have succeeded with a little voice but a lot of money, I was too pure or too early, But one day I will show them that I have talent.” Charles Aznavour, I was already sending

The legend Aznavour was born one evening in December 1960. At the Alhambra, the great music hall near the Place de la République, in Paris, his career is played in one evening. After six songs interpreted in an icy atmosphere, the artist takes out his last card: I was already sending myself. The story of an artist whose career does not take off. Charles Aznavour sings the last verse: “I was never given my chance, Others succeeded with a little voice but a lot of money, I was too pure or too early, But a day will come I show them that I have talent. “It’s the ovation. A huge and definitive success: Aznavour will not leave the top of the bill, he is 36 years old.

Bohemia, Mamma, His youth, You and me, My boredom, No I have not forgotten anything, From now on, The Comedians, Take me, You let yourself go … Charles Aznavour connects the tubes and, in 1963, begins a career in the United States. He seduces the Americans, who rush to attend his performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. Nearly 400 New Yorkers are present in the room. The singer alternates songs in English and French. An evening that marks the true starting point of his international career.

Aznavour on the big screen

In France, Aznavour becomes a reference. And when, in 1989, he appealed to French artists to come to the rescue of Armenia, his country of origin, which has just been devastated by an earthquake, they are ninety singers and actors hurry behind the microphone to sing For you Armenia – the single will be sold to a million copies. In 1997, he was named Officer of the Legion of Honor.

“A taxi for Tobruk”, one of Charles Aznavour’s reference films.
Recognized singer, Charles Aznavour will also have a career in cinema with 63 films on the clock. If many were nanars, he plays his most beautiful roles in the 1960s: Shoot the pianist Truffaut, The Testament Orpheus Cocteau, A taxi to Tobruk La Patelliere, Paris in August Granier- Deferre … In 1968, the international star shot her first film in English: Christian Marquand’s Candy with Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and James Coburn. He also plays in German, in The Tambour (1979) Volker Schlöndorff who won the Oscar for best foreign film. Dramatic hero, he directed under Claude Chabrol in 1982, The Ghosts of the hatter in the role of a man crushed and reserved.

Aznavour composes many music for his films, writes the screenplay of Paul Boujenah’s comedy, Yiddish Connection. In the 1990s, he became more discreet in the cinema, turning mainly TV movies.

Aznavour, always and “Encores”

Eight kilos is the weight of the complete work of Aznavour, released in 1996. An imposing box of 33 CDs in the form of Morris column that gives the full dimension of the career of the singer.

Aznavour enters the 21st century. Each tour is then presented as the last. In 2000, he announced his farewells and finally celebrated his 80th birthday in 2004 at the Palais des congrès, his home port. The following year, he began a North American farewell tour and then pursued the latter internationally, singing in Asia, Europe, Oceania and South America. His “last return” was scheduled for 2007. But every year, Aznavour savor the drunkenness of being at the top of the bill. 2009 is a new North American marathon.

A year later, Charles Aznavour is still not satisfied. He leaves Aznavour always, his 50th album and goes directly with the European tour Charles Aznavour in all intimacy. In 2013, we remember his duet with Johnny Hallyday on the title “On my life” on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the idol of young people. In May 2015, he released Encores, his 51st album, but his 46th original. Author of numerous autobiographical volumes, the singer was passionate about literature and confided in 2017, in the columns of Le Figaro: “I am educating myself, because I need it for my work, not to shine in society. My name shines for me, it’s pretty boring. ”

In 2018, Charles Aznavour returned to 93 years on the road of concerts. After seven years of absence, he had performed in six cities in France in January. Whoever wanted to sing until the age of 100, was to tour in November around the world.

https://youtu.be/aqKoW9mYFNM

Duet with Johnny Hallyday on the title “On my life” on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the youth idol.